‘More Fun’ slogan to be refreshed next year

MANILA, Philippines — While it retains the “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” tourism slogan, the Department of Tourism (DOT) has vowed to “refresh” the branding campaign in 2019 to woo millennials through social media.

DOT Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said they want to ensure that the country’s tourism campaign will go with recent trends online.

The campaign was launched in 2012 and was picked up on social media as netizens played with it by making their own versions to show why it’s more fun in the Philippines.

Puyat said they will keep the campaign for continuity, but that it has to be tweaked as social media platforms at the time it was launched were not as strong as they are today.

“As far as ‘refreshed branding campaign’ (is concerned), we will focus (on) the millennials…we just want to make it in to the times,” Puyat told reporters on Friday morning on the sidelines of the general meeting of the Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) in Pasay City, where she was guest speaker.
Puyat emphasized that the DOT will not only promote the country’s tourism products, destinations and Filipino traits, but will also advocate sustainable tourism among local and foreign travelers and other stakeholders.

She noted that sustainable tourism should be promoted to preserve and protect the environment.

“In line with our mandate to device (integrated) marketing and promotional activities, we will also be intensifying our efforts in promoting secondary tourist destinations in order to further increase our tourist arrivals,” she added.

Puyat said they have started bidding out the contract to advertising agencies for the promotional campaign in partnership with the TCP, as it will play an important role in the marketing strategies.

TCP president Jojo Clemente said they welcome the decision of the DOT to tap them in the selection process of the next ad agency and are looking forward to a fruitful partnership with the agency “in carrying out and achieving its objectives.”

Asked if the DOT will consider the McCann Worldgroup Philippines, which produced an alleged copied version of promotional material during former tourism secretary Wanda Teo’s time, Puyat said everybody is welcome to join.

“I don’t know if they (McCann) will bid but it’s open to all anyway. I don’t know because I don’t want to get myself involved in that,” she said.

The DOT, during Teo’s term, terminated its contract with McCann in June 2017 after it allegedly plagiarized a promotional campaign from South Africa. McCann bagged the P650-million contract from the DOT.